Cape Canaveral, Fla. — The first inhabitants of the International Space Station are preparing to hitch a ride back to their home planet after more than four months in space. Shuttle Discovery is en route, and rendezvous is scheduled for early Saturday.
Two hundred thirty-three miles above Earth, their bags are packed and they're ready to go.
"The first month you're kind of overjoyed, and about the fourth or fifth month, you're kind of ready to come home," station commander Bill Shepherd said before Discovery blasted off at sunrise Thursday from the Kennedy Space Center. "I think we'll be happy to turn a good ship over to the next crew."
Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev boarded the still-under-construction space station in early November. Known as Expedition One, they helped prepare the facility for future occupants.
Now, they are about to be replaced by a Russian commander, Yury Usachev, and U.S. astronauts Susan Helms and Jim Voss. All three were carried into space Thursday by Discovery, which lifted off on schedule at 5:42 a.m. CST after a flawless countdown.
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